Music sounds better when driving

How many times have you been listening to a song you liked so much that you kept driving right by your house to hear the end of it? Once? Twice? Never?

It's a rhetorical question I've been asking around the office these days because, quite frankly, I don't want to think that I'm the only one who does it. And, as I found out, "Uhhhhh, yaaaaa, um, Rhonda, we do that allll the time (shifty eye, shifty eyes)." I'm not alone. (Or am I ...?)

So what gives? We could just run in the house and listen to the end on a very expensive "stationary" system, without the worry of being cut off in our recliners by some cell-phone using goofball. But, noooooooo, we would much rather drive in circles and wave at the kid near the fire hydrant -- again -- when you pass him for the third time.

Don't look at me like that ... I know I'm not the only one who does this. Oh no? Every day I see zillions of you singing your hearts out with all your favorite hits from the (insert favorite decade here) blaring out your windows while cruising around with the bass cranked so high even I can feel it pounding in that little groove on the back of my neck.

I'm not making fun of anyone for singing off key or butchering the lyrics (at least not to your face when we're both waiting at red light ... I'll wait until I need fodder for another column). Lord knows, I'm right there with you.

Actually, if you can sing well inside your car ... and steer it down the road without crashing, I envy you almost as much as I do the supermodels who say they don't have to work out.

Me, I'm a hummer and a steering-wheel tapper, not a singer. I couldn't carry a tune if my rent depended on it. (There's a former neighbor out there somewhere with a wad of cotton balls stuffed in his ears, one who's nodding his head right now).

But we all do it -- drive around town, speakers shaking, the digits on the odometer climbing, trying to look cool so we can hear the end of some song that reminds us of the time in our lives when we weren't.

Why? I'm thinkin' -- and please remember I stayed up very late pondering this -- it's because we can't get the same sensation of freedom and exhilaration from the fancy-shmancy home entertainment center that we can while listening to music in a moving car. And, of course, "moving to the music" gets new meaning when you're doing 50 mph.

Confined space? Better equipment? Isolation? Maybe, but I think there's more to it than that.

In a car, it's more than just an auditory experience ... it's the wind messing up your hair, the scenery blurring past and that exciting thump of bass and twang of a guitar. It's kind of like being the star in your own music video while driving around in a giant speaker box. The rocketing car is an extension of the bodily movements associated with dancing. Really. Anyway, that's my theory. (By the way, to all the teenage boys on my block: Just because the volume can go up to 10, doesn't mean you should set it there.)

But it can't just be the music. We could all pull a Tom Cruise á la "Risky Business," singing in our skivvies at home (well, not that I've ever done that). But it's the thrill of the full sensory experience that drives us.

Million-dollar aftermarket businesses have been built to fulfill that very desire.

Glossy magazines as thick as phonebooks with seductive headlines that promise "101 ways to enhance your listening pleasure in your car" thrive on it.

And some people want that feeling so badly that they'll spend serious cash trying to make their car a throbbing jukebox on wheels (remember boys, not 10 on the dial).

And then there are other people with their factory stereos cranked who simply like putting on a show for that cute girl/guy in the car next to them and don't care what the kid near the fire hydrant thinks.

Me? I'll stick to my humming and steering-wheel tapping, thank you very much. My office buddies think I'm nuts enough as it is.

Rhonda Wheeler is a journalist with Wheelbase Communications, a worldwide supplier of automotive news, features and reviews. You can e-mail her by logging on to www.wheelbase.ws/mailbag.html.